Assist Understanding Copyright, Creative Commons, and Fair Use.

You might have discovered that my face is appearing in more of the cover images for my blog posts and in more of the cover images for my videos. The reason is that in my on-going battle against sites that republish my content without consent it is much simpler for me to show proof of ownership and creativity when my face is in the cover image. Filing DMCA takedown notices is lengthy and even when filed properly some hosting companies still need even more evidence of initial work and ownership. Being able to state, “hey, thats my photo of myself wearing my favorite flannel shirt” is a lot easier and faster than composing an explanation of the originality of my blog site post.

I get a bunch of follow-up questions Whenever I publish something about copyright. These are a few of the regularly asked questions..

Can I forward your newsletter to my coworkers?
Yes, of course. Strike the forward button in your inbox and share it as I wrote it (over-use of hyphens and parentheses is among the trademarks of my blog site posts so dont be tempted to modify those out)..

If Youre in a Similar Situation, resources.
If you have a website or blog site that is likewise frequently scraped, here are some resources that may be handy to you..

I embedded your YouTube video into my class/ school website, is that fine?.
Yes, thats totally great as long as youre using the embed or link offered by YouTube and not downloading the video then republishing it (check out YouTubes TOS for more information)..

I like to share the title or a little summary of your blog post with my personnel, is that okay?
Yes, as long as youre not republishing the whole thing and or passing it off as your own. If you want someone to read the entire post, provide the link to it..

You might have observed that my face is appearing in more of the cover images for my article and in more of the cover images for my videos. There is a reason for that and its not that Ive found a brand-new vanity in my mid-40s. The reason is that in my on-going fight against sites that republish my material without permission it is much easier for me to prove proof of ownership and creativity when my face is in the cover image. If youre interested in the explanation of that, keep reading..

Many of the websites that are taking my work nowadays are doing so via automated means. Its reasonably simple to compose a script that scrapes all of the material from an RSS feed and imports it into a different website. Truncating or stopping my RSS feed stops a few of the thieves, however many have moved onto using scripts that scrape directly from the website instead of from the RSS feed. Thats a little more difficult to stop so my option is to submit DMCA takedown notifications with Google to get them to get rid of the angering content from their results pages. Furthermore, I then submit DMCA takedown notifications with the websites hosting services..
When filed appropriately some hosting business still require even more proof of original work and ownership, filing DMCA takedown notices is lengthy and even. Having the ability to state, “hey, thats my image of myself wearing my preferred flannel shirt” is a lot simpler and faster than composing an explanation of the originality of my blog site post. Still, some shady hosting companies (usually situated beyond the United States) wont do a darn thing to honor my request. In those cases a minimum of theres a simple method for visitors of the angering site to recognize that what theyre checking out was drawn from FreeTech4Teachers.com.